Odnos hrvatskoga društva prema starijim osobama
The Croatian society’s attitude towards older people

A test of humanity and vision of the future

Summary/Abstract: This text seeks to argue that the totality of social attitudes towards older people reflects the level of not only humanity, as the most frequently mentioned and most desirable value in contemporary society, but even more, also the care and awareness of one’s own future. A sustainable human society presumes a clear vision of the irreplaceableness of every person included in the social life, and when it comes to the personal contribution in terms of the functional role of the members of society, discourse about the importance of human capital is inevitable. For the future of society, this is the basic level of awareness that should be present among all the members of society, and especially in those social groups whose task is to plan and make long-term development decisions. The introductory section will discuss basic concepts that help understanding the idea that the humanization of social attitudes towards older people is inseparable from the humanization of the total society. After that, in the central part of the paper we will compare specific experiences of life in retirement; 20 retired senior citizens => 70, of whom 8 are from Croatia and 3 from Israel, Finland, England and Germany. Comparing their retirement life experiences opens the question of what are the basics of a long-term viable and self-renewing strategy of social attitude towards older people? At the same time, we will offer some specific possibilities that are available to every society, including ours, which do not require great sacrifice, but only a good sincere intention of decision-makers about the visions of social development.

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